How to stop gun proliferation in the US

[guillaumeb]

170. More on home invasions:

I enjoyed your conversation on Up with Chris Hayes. You mentioned the risk of home invasion, and the realistic fear that the cops just wouldn't get there in time. That's obviously a primeval motive to have a gun by the bedside or whatever.

But the fear is also easily out of proportion to the threat. I had the Chicago police run the number on homicides. In 2011, precisely one homicide listed "burglary" as the motive. Nationwide, there are about 100 burglary-homicides every year. When you compare that to more than 18,000 gun suicides, the conclusions seem pretty obvious.

100 burglary-homicides a year. If this number is correct, that translates to 1 person out of every million Americans. Hardly a threat that one should rank highly.

Yet having guns around bring risks, too. Practically speaking, it's not the incredibly rare risk of mass homicide, but the everyday risks of injury, accident, domestic altercations, and suicide. The relative risks matter. And the fact is: lethal home invasions and burglaries are incredibly rare. You might not think so, since dramatic cases stick in your mind and tend to receive disproportionate press coverage. These cases are rare nonetheless.

Fear sells weapons. The NRA knows this, as do the weapons manufacturers. But is the fear based on a real likelihood of something happening? And when I posed the question of multiple invaders it was only in response to a previous post that raised the idea that only 3 rounds is hardly enough to defend the home.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/gun-violence-and-the-irrational-fear-of-home-invasion/266613/